How was trading back in the year 1988 to 1994

I have a question for those of you who was with the market 10 years ago or know how the trading environment was then.

I do a lot of backtesting but I have a problem. Stocks like AA, C and GE was all in a pricerange for 1 to 10 dollars between 90 and 94. The problem I have is when I calculate commission per share and the stock move only 0.10 it's hard to come out as a winner if you trade 1000 shares.

So my question is how was the spread and commission rates then? What stocks you have traded? How can I make a backtest that make sense in this timerange?